1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet handling apparatus that performs predetermined processing on a sheet and an image forming system including the sheet handling apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally widely known are image forming systems including a sheet handling apparatus that performs folding on a sheet on which an image is formed by an image forming apparatus. Examples of the folding performed on a sheet include half-folding for folding a single sheet and saddle-stitching for aligning a bundle of sheets, stitching the bundle of sheets using a stapler, and folding the bundle of sheets. The sheet thus half-folded and the bundle of sheets thus saddle-stitched are conveyed so that the folded part of the sheets is the leading end in a sheet conveying direction. The sheets are sequentially conveyed with at least parts of the sheets overlapping with each other and are stacked on a stacking tray.
Like the sheet handling apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4179011, a saddle-stitching discharging unit from which a half-folded or saddle-stitched bundle of sheets is discharged tends to be provided to a lower part of the sheet handling apparatus. Therefore, a stacking tray provided to the saddle-stitching discharging unit is located at a lower position. As a result, if a sheet stacking surface of the stacking tray is horizontally arranged, a user needs to bend down considerably to remove the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking surface. Thus, the operability is deteriorated.
In the sheet handling apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2010-143677, a stacking tray is provided in an inclined manner such that an end of a sheet stacking surface on the downstream side in a sheet conveying direction is located higher than an end on the upstream side. By inclining the sheet stacking surface in this manner, it is possible to arrange the sheet stacking surface at a level facilitating removal of the sheets. Therefore, compared with the case where the sheet stacking surface is horizontally arranged, the user can remove the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking surface without bending down considerably. Thus, the operability can be enhanced.
However, swelling occurs around a folded part of the sheets on which folding is performed. Therefore, if the stacking tray is provided in an inclined manner, the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking surface are likely to collapse compared with the case where the sheet stacking surface is horizontally arranged, resulting in poor stacking.
Therefore, there is a need for a sheet handling apparatus capable of arranging a sheet stacking surface at a level facilitating removal of sheets and of suppressing poor stacking and an image forming system including the sheet handling apparatus.